Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/233

Rh and authorized the government to raise $500,000,000 to carry on the war. General McClellan was called from West Virginia to take command of the army of the Potomac, and his acknowledged skill as an organizer was soon thoroughly tested by the pressure of great bodies of soldiers forwarded to his department. For months his work consisted in preparing an army which he desired to be invincible, and his government sought to gratify his desire. Before the end of the winter, 200,000 well equipped soldiers constituted "the army of the Potomac," for the protection of Washington and invasion of Virginia.

On the 1st of July, 1861, the total Federal force stationed at all points was computed as 307,875 men, and after deducting the 77,875 three months' men, there still remained at the command of the government about 230,000 soldiers. This total was increased by the 1st of December, according to the estimate of the war department, to 660,971 volunteers and regulars, divided among the armies and navies of the east and the west.

The Confederate authorities, seeing the indisposition of McClellan to make any early advance on Richmond in the fall and winter of 1861, undertook to reorganize the armies of the Confederacy and increase their strength in all respects. The same Federal inaction also permitted an attempt to recover the ground lost in western Virginia. Battles of a minor character were fought in that region, at Grafton, Cross Lanes, Carnifix Ferry, Cheat mountain and other places, but the Confederates failed to establish their control over this section. Accordingly the greater part of the forces engaged in the effort was withdrawn and sent to other fields.

In the western field, after the defeat of Lyon, Price and McCulloch united their commands at Wilson's Creek, Mo.; Price moved against Mulligan's division at Lexington, and compelled his surrender of 3,500 men with their arms and supplies, after which the great Missouri chief-